Deborah Triplett

Susanne Dillingham | Tiny Chef

When Susanne first considered culinary school, she was told not to apply until she’d worked in a restaurant—but the diminutive chef wannabe couldn’t get a job. Finally landing a gig as a dishwasher, (where the pots sometimes seemed bigger than she was), she realized she’d truly found her calling.

“If you tell me I can’t do something, I want to prove I can,” says Susanne. “The wait staff even had a bet that I wouldn’t last the night. A lot of people lost a lot of money that night.” Dishwashing eventually led to culinary school in Italy, where she fell in love with the food and culture, making Italian delicacies her specialty.

Last October, Susanne launched The Tiny Chef, offering cooking classes and catering private dinner parties. “I cook, I clean, I serve, I entertain,” she says. “Now if I could just figure out how to tap dance while I’m cooking.”

~Aleigh Acerni